The Monastery at the Guan-yin Well  mogao6.jpg (45253 bytes)

The Guan-yin Well is obviously a significant local pilgrimage site; one assumes that to its waters are attributed miraculous properties.  mogao5.jpg (44182 bytes)

Adjoining it is a Buddhist monastery, around which on the hills are various stupas and  chapels.

mogao8.jpg (36781 bytes)

In 1998 the monastery was tended by a lone diminutive nun, who carefully observed all the rituals in the several chapels of the main building complex.  Each visitor was invited to light sticks of incense to place in front of the various images; on completion of the service, she insisted on offering breakfast.

mogao7.jpg (30363 bytes)Here is a view of the shrine to Guan-yin in one of the small chapels accessible by a somewhat treacherous path that leads up above the monastery.  More about Guan-yin (Kuan-yin), the Chinese embodiment of the bodhisattva Avalokitesvara, will be found on the separate pages being created about the Lotus Sutra and its imagery.                                              

 

  «  Back to the Tun Huang Lu.

© 1999 Daniel C. Waugh